WHY SINKING PHOENIX MAY FIND IT HARD TO RISE AGAIN GERVIN AND THOMPSON: FROM SHAME TO FAME CHARLOTTE WAITS ON KARL

Last season, Cotton Fitzsimmons, then the Suns' executive vicepresident and now also their coach, surveyed his team and said,"I love every one of these guys, but I hope to trade all of thembefore they retire."

So goes the philosophy in Phoenix. In hopes of winning achampionship, the Suns have dealt, without blinking, some oftheir most popular players (Jeff Hornacek, Dan Majerle and LarryNance, to name three), receiving in return players who have keptPhoenix near the top, such as Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson.

Yet an NBA title has eluded the Suns--and hopes of a championshipwere again slipping away following Sunday's 110-105 loss to theSpurs in Game 2 of a best-of-five first-round Western Conferenceplayoff. That defeat sent the Suns to the brink of eliminationas the series headed to Phoenix. In their two losses last weekto San Antonio, the Suns fell victim to the same woes thatplagued them during a lackluster 41-41 regular season: erraticperimeter shooting, soft defense and injuries.

For forward Danny Manning, who's battling tendinitis in his leftknee, an early Phoenix exit might be a blessing, allowing him toresume his rehabilitation. But for Fitzsimmons and Phoenixpresident Jerry Colangelo the off-season could prove to be longand frustrating. For the first time in several seasons they mayhave difficulty wheeling and dealing to reload their lineup.They don't want to trade Manning, 29, a cornerstone who will bearound, health permitting, for another six seasons. And theveterans they might like to send elsewhere have expensive and/orlong-term contracts that could make them hard to get rid of. Forinstance, the Suns would swap 32-year-old forward A.C. Green ina heartbeat, but with his contract averaging $6.4 million overthe next three seasons, who would take him? Ditto forcenter-forward Wayman Tisdale, who will turn 32 next month andwho is on the books for next season at $3.4 million.Injury-prone guard Johnson, 30, has a 1996-97 salary of $7million. John (Hot Rod) Williams, 33, a disappointment in themiddle since being acquired from the Cavaliers last fall in theMajerle deal, is set to haul in almost $3 million next season.Reserve guard Elliott Perry? He's only 27, but he is signed forfive more years at $2.14 million per season.Thirty-four-year-old reserve center Joe Kleine? He has anotheryear at $1.23 million.

The X factor in Phoenix's rebuilding campaign is Barkley. SirCharles shocked many basketball insiders by accepting aninvitation to play on Dream Team III in this summer's Olympics.Suns sources say that one of the reasons Barkley decided toparticipate in the Games is that he's seriously consideringretiring and views Atlanta as a perfect setting for his swansong. Barkley's threats to quit have become a rite of spring,but the situation is different this year. For the first time inBarkley's four seasons in Phoenix, the Suns no longer loom asserious contenders. And the prideful Barkley isn't thrilled thathe's not an untouchable anymore. Phoenix would unhesitatinglypull the trigger on a deal sending him elsewhere to obtain ayoung player--or some salary-cap room.

The Suns might just let their expected decline run its course.Colangelo concedes that Phoenix won't be a major player in thissummer's bidding wars for the most impressive free-agent groupin history. "My plan is to watch all these other teams beat thetar out of each other for the top players, and hang around andpick up the crumbs," he says. Look for Colangelo to make a smallmove at improving his club, perhaps with a run at Bulletsfree-agent center Jim McIlvaine. Then he'll sit back and waituntil 1998, when--under terms of the rookie salary cap, whichtook effect this season--the NBA's current rookies become freeagents. However, if Barkley has played his final season with theSuns, don't be surprised if Phoenix tries to bring back Majerle,who becomes a free agent in July.

TWO FOR THE HALL

As two of the game's most prolific and electrifying offensiveplayers in the 1970s and '80s, they dueled each other forscoring titles, and on Monday they will enter the BasketballHall of Fame together. But basketball is not the only linkbetween George (Iceman) Gervin and David Thompson. Each wentthrough a drug addiction that nearly destroyed his life.

Gervin, who played primarily for the Spurs, averaged 25.1 pointsper game during his 14 seasons in the ABA and the NBA and is oneof only three players to lead the league in scoring at leastfour times (Michael Jordan, with eight scoring titles, and WiltChamberlain, with seven, are the others). Gervin says that hestarted using cocaine while with San Antonio but that hisproblem worsened at the end of his career, after he was releasedby the Bulls following the 1985-86 season. "I couldn't deal withnot being in the league anymore," he says. "I didn't feel I wasworth very much. That's when the disease took hold of me andwouldn't let go."

Thompson, who was a three-time All-America at North CarolinaState, averaged 21.5 points over nine seasons through 1983-84for the Nuggets (ABA and NBA) and the Sonics. His cocaine usebegan in mid-career and soon turned into an addiction, oneThompson at first refused to acknowledge. "I got caught up insomething that was a fad at the time," Thompson says. "I kepttelling myself, Addiction will never happen to a guy like me.Things had to fall totally apart before I finally realized itcould." Thompson bottomed out in 1987 when he served time in aminimum-security detention center after assaulting his wife.

Both men entered substance-abuse programs and turned their livesaround. Gervin, who's a community relations representative withthe Spurs, founded San Antonio's nonprofit George Gervin YouthCenter. Having reentered the national spotlight--and, indeed,attained cult status--through his "the Iceman cooketh"commercials for Nike, Gervin is seeking to capitalize on thepopularity of that persona; he recently filmed a sitcom pilotfor ABC called Southern Fried Ice, in which he plays arestaurant owner.

Thompson is the youth programs coordinator for Charlotte'sJunior Hornets booster program and works for a speakers' bureauadvising adults and young people on how to make intelligent lifechoices.

Both he and Gervin have resisted wondering if their careerswould have been even more remarkable had they stayed straight."No sense in torturing yourself," says Gervin. "David and I mademistakes. We've both paid dearly. People used to remember me formy game. Now, whatever I do for the rest of my life, they'llremember me for one thing: my addiction."

AROUND THE RIM

Don't hold your breath waiting for the announcement of a newHornets coach to replace the fired Allan Bristow. Sources sayowner George Shinn wants to wait until after the Sonics completetheir playoff run to see if Seattle coach George Karl, a formerTar Heel, stays put.... Houston can pick up an option on guardSam Cassell for $1.2 million next season but has wisely decidedto renegotiate with him this summer and reward him with acontract in the range of $2.5 million to $3 million a season.The Rockets will also begin talks on extending the contract offorward Robert Horry, whose deal ends in July 1997.... By losingtheir first two playoff games in Utah, the Blazers ran theirrecord at the Delta Center to 1-11.

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything